‘Shut your eyes and vote for Holness’ - Warmington urges JLP supporters

Senior Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) member Everald Warmington has urged Labourites in Westmoreland Central to "shut mout’, shut yuh eye and vote for Andrew Holness" if they dislike their Member of Parliament George Wright.

“I am proud to be here… When others abandoned George Wright, I was there,” Warmington said at a Westmoreland Central workers’ awards ceremony. “When one sinned and come short of the glory of God, we should not turn our backs.”

He was likely referencing the stool-beating case in which Wright and his partner filed separate assault reports, which they later abandoned. Wright, who faced significant public backlash, resigned from the party but was readmitted in February.

Addressing internal grumbling, Warmington lashed out at dissatisfied supporters: “Stop complainin’! You may not like your Member of Parliament. You don’t like him ... but he is better than the PNP... work with him!”

“If you think you can’t work with George Wright, go behind the screen, close your eyes, and say, ‘Mi a vote for Andrew Holness and the Labour Party,’” Warmington added. “Don’t stay home. Put the X beside the bell.”

Despite the controversy, Warmington, whose speech was interspersed with expletives, remains confident: “I am confident my colleagues will take all three Westmoreland seats.”

Warmington is chairman of the JLP Area Council Two region.

Later on in his presentation, Warmington repeated his racial criticisms of Mark Golding, the opposition leader and president of the People’s National Party. “We could never, my brothers and sisters, go back to elect a white Jewish man ...to lead us again. We are for Andrew Holness,” he said.

- Albert Ferguson

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